2009 NRI murder case: two get life sentence

A local court on Saturday awarded rigorous life imprisonment to two persons in the murder case of UK-based NRI Charanjeet Singh who was killed outside Country Inn hotel in September 2009.

The convicts are Kamal Kishore of Adampur and Vipan Kumar of local Shaheed Bhagat Singh Colony. The court of additional district and sessions judge Harveen Bhardwaj also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 upon them, failing which they will have to undergo six-month extra imprisonment.The court, however, acquitted other accused Rajiv Syal, Ashwani Kumar, Suraj Kumar, Narinder Kumar and Kishan Lal while Raj Kumar, a proclaimed offender, is yet to be arrested.

Tajinder Kaur, the deceased NRI's wife, had complained to the police that her husband had come to India to attend a marriage. The deceased, who hailed from Atalgarh village in Hoshiarpur, was running an employment agency in England.

On September 28, 2009, Charanjeet went to attend a function at Bath Castle but was found dead outside the hotel. The hotel staff informed the police which took the victim's body to the civil hospital where doctors found a bullet in his head during the post-mortem examination.

A case was registered against unknown persons under various sections of the IPC and Arms Act at the police station-6. After a week, the district police claimed to have solved the case and arrested Kamal Kishore of Adampur, Raj Kumar and Rajeev Kumar of Basti Sheikh in Jalandhar. Later, Vipan Kumar, the alleged contract killer, was also arrested.

During preliminary investigations, the police found that Charanjit had given about Rs 35 lakh to Kamal Kumar in England to buy a property for him in Punjab. Kamal purchased four plots but got the property registered in the name of his family members.

When Charanjit visited India, he asked Kamal to pay back his money. Kamal hatched a conspiracy to eliminate Charanjit and gave 'supari' to a group of contract killers led by Vipan Kumar.